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Re: where did all the divers go?



Hi Carolinabirders,

My friend and fellow grad student Noland Martin reports that he had a
Red-breasted Nuthatch in his yard yesterday. He lives in Durham, in the
Watts/Hillandale neighborhood.

> "Harrold, Eric S" <esharrol@email.uncc.edu>@acpub.duke.edu on 02/04/2002
>
> Do any other inlanders feel like they have been short-ended on the diving
> ducks this winter? I'm sure others have been out more than I have in recent
> weeks in the Charlotte area and thus may have an experience contrary to
> mine. So far, no Canvasbacks have shown up at University Place pond or Don
> T. Howell reservoir (to my knowledge or experience). This weekend while
> birding with some Mecklenburg Audubon folks I saw Buffleheads for the first
> time this season at Cowan's Ford. Aside from Ruddies in the usual places,
> its been a bummer thus far. What's the line on this subject in Raleigh,
> Hickory, etc?...

In addition to the possibilities offered by Steve Schultz, habitat quality
of individual bodies of water may be involved. For instance, Greenview
Pond near Raleigh used to be a great spot for waterfowl, but it was
recently drained and refilled as part of a wetlands mitigation project,
and hasn't had more than a handful of waterfowl since. The Carolinas'
recent drought and resulting lake water level drops may have similarly
affected many waterfowl wintering spots, for instance temporarily drying
out some former waterfowl feeding grounds and killing off the plants
there.

Lake Wheeler used to be THE place for waterfowl in the Triangle, but an
introduction of Asiatic Grass Carp to control the invasive aquatic weed
Hydrilla not only wiped out Hydrilla, it pretty much cleaned out the lake
of any and all underwater plant life and along with it probably lots of
snails, insects, etc. You can still find Ruddy Ducks there regularly, but
other species are absent or spotty at best.

I haven't been to Lake Crabtree since Norm Budnitz and I did our December
Big Day, and found the usually reliable 300+ American Coots absent. Are
they back there yet? And I'm still wondering why the Bonaparte's Gulls
that used to swarm over Jordan Lake are now much less common there, and
much more common at Falls Lake where I never used to see more than one or
two...

Good birding,

Josh


Joshua S. Rose
Duke University
Department of Biology (Zoology, R.I.P.)

jsr6@duke.edu
http://www.duke.edu/~jsr6/